Gaming, adventuring, DIY

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Car

Our 4×4 (soft-roader) is our workhorse. But it’s not been getting the mileage it should, and it smells of diesel all the time – inside and out. After a lot of cleaning, wiping and getting covered in various liquids, it turns out it’s coming from the fuel pump.

A quick look online shows that garages would charge between £1200 and £1500 for the job. A new pump itself is about £600, and a reconditioned pump is about £200. However, after taking it apart and having a look inside, the seals seem to have perished. A new seal kit only costs £10 – that’s more like it!

After removing the big plastic engine cover, I found the pump:

A couple of bolts, and it was off.

Four bolts were holding the top on, I wanted to undo them very slowly – things with springs in always worry me:

After removing the head, I could remove the old seals:

And then replace them with the new seals:

Reassembling was slightly more difficult – it was easier to place the pump onto the head and flip the whole thing over to do up the bolts, as the seals fell off when placing the head onto the pump.

The Kia’s battery is hopeless. I usually stick a solar charger over it when it’s not going to be used for more than two days, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of sun lately. To get it to start, I had to hook up my jump start pack and another car battery!

Luckily it only took a few cranks before it was up and running again. It drives fine, and so far, so good! I’ll check back in a few weeks to see if there are any leaks.